


My Popping Star (Exploding In My Heart)

by Tae2Junnies



Category: ATEEZ (Band), ITZY (Band), NCT Dream, Stray Kids (Band), TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band), The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Because All The Couples Are In Love, Best Friends Choi Soobin & Choi Yeonjun, Childhood Friends, College party au, Couple Game-Show AU!, Crack, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Mention of alcohol/drugs/sex, Mentioned ITZY Ensemble, Mentioned LOONA Ensemble, Mentioned Stray Kids Ensemble, Mentioned The Boyz Ensemble, Mutual Pining, Romance, Sorority Loona, They All Were In the Same High School, This Fic Is A Multi Clusterfuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tae2Junnies/pseuds/Tae2Junnies
Summary: People were speculating and chatting from every corner of the room and honestly, what's new? His old school mates were unable to be quiet for more than five seconds.Then something clicked.“Wait," Yeonjun hissed at Beomgyu, "Why do Soobin and I have to do it, if Markhyuck volunteered to take Minho and Jisung's spot?” he asked Beomgyu.He was met with silence.There were at least forty people crammed in this playroom but somehow no one answered him for a whole twenty seconds.Beomgyu cleared his throat and cut the silence, “Because I make the rules, hyung. Now shut it and sit down in front of your partner.”"We're not a coup--""Yeah, yeah, tell that to your seven years worth of daily good night messages," Kai scoffed. Yeonjun blushed but shut his mouth becase honestly, the younger hadn't completely lied.Or:(AU) Yeonjun and Soobin have been best friends for years and Yeonjun had had a crush on Soobin for just as long. He hadn't plan to act on this crush but when Beomgyu forced them to participate to his couple game-show as one of the actual couples, he kind of had to go with it.It wasn't easy, though.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Kang Taehyun, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun, Ju Haknyeon/Kim Sunwoo, Lee Chaeryeong/Shin Ryujin, Other Relationships Mentionned
Comments: 18
Kudos: 293





	My Popping Star (Exploding In My Heart)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the 3rd Gen/4th Gen multis](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the+3rd+Gen%2F4th+Gen+multis).



> This is an ode to my multistans out there that feels like groups should interact more! 
> 
> I tried my best to include as many people as I could because I COULD and I just had the best time writing this!
> 
> This is mainly TXT, ITZY and Some members of the groups mentioned but almost everyone speaks once
> 
> Please Enjoy this 17k words mess!  
> luv youuu

“Why do Beomgyu always does this?” Yeonjun huffed out.

“The question is why do we have the worse sense of direction?” Soobin chuckled although they both could see that his smile hid a deep painful sigh that just wanted to get out.

See, they have been walking for the last hour within the depth of Beomgyu and Taehyun’s college campus and at first it was easy to follow the direction with the GPS but then Yeonjun’s phone died and since Soobin never charges his _damn_ phone before going out they were officially lost. They both had the _worse_ sense of direction, too, so that made things even more complicated.

“You should know where we are Soobin. You go to this college!” Yeonjun whined at the sight of the tree that had an heart-shaped ‘B + T’ carved on it that they had passed by for the third time now, meaning that they were just rounding the _same_ neighborhood for the last thirty minutes. “How do you not know this side of campus?”

“This is a side that I barely go to, hyung. You know that Beomgyu and Taehyun generally hang out in my dorm. I never walk this far.” Soobin explained as he squinted at the sign that indicated the streets they were on, like it would change their situation. Yeonjun wanted to hit him but the sight of Soobin’s cute pout when the younger realized that his attempt was in vain made his heart skipped a beat.

_Stupid Soobin. Stupid Soobin whom Yeonjun had a stupid crush on._

He honestly wondered how it was possible that he liked Choi Soobin. One would think that when you have known someone in such a depth, for so long, you would be disgusted for life. Yeonjun had actually seen Soobin taste his cat’s litter just to ‘see how it tasted’ when they were 10 years old. That would be enough reason to only look at his childhood best friend with mix of permanent disgust and admiration for the rest of their lives. But not Choi Yeonjun.

They’ve been inseparable since diapers, their mothers being friends from college and staying so close that they decided to be neighbors. Soobin and him were almost _destined_ to be by each other’s side; this, they both knew. What Yeonjun had never expected was that this strong feeling of affection that he couldn’t help but feel for Soobin since the first time that the younger called him ‘hyungie’ would turn into… more.

He realized that he had feelings for Soobin in high school, when Soobin had his first boyfriend and Yeonjun had quite literally pouted for the entire duration of his best friend’s relationship since Soobin was ‘forgetting about him’. The heart-fluttering _“Are you crazy, hyung? I would never be able to forget you. You’re way too important to me,”_ that Soobin had responded the day that Yeonjun had told him how he felt about his boyfriend had made Yeonjun’s knees almost quiver. The realization had been quite immediate. He liked Soobin so much (and who could blame him, really.)

“Should we just ask to someone in this dorm?” Soobin pointed at the residency across the street where they stood. The sign ‘Alberta Residency’ was rather small on the façade of the dorm and Yeonjun wanted to bath in bleach because—

“Soobin.”

“What, hyung?”

“This is the residence.” He said quietly in pure exasperation.

Soobin frowned at the sign, “No it isn’t—"

“There you guys are! We’ve been waiting for you for ages!”

Beomgyu waved at them from the window on what seemed to be the second floor of the dorm. Yeonjun sighed again and walked to the residency, ignoring Soobin’s sheepish smile of apology, since he actually should have at least recognized the dorm, contrarily to Yeonjun who didn’t study in this college.

“Sorry, Gyu. We had some minor set-back.” Soobin laughed awkwardly and Yeonjun ignored him again, because honestly, one glance at Soobin’s smile was enough for Yeonjun to forgive him instantly. Such was their friendship dynamic.

Soobin would be his clumsy-oaf self and Yeonjun would get mad and Soobin would pout or whine an apology, making Yeonjun forget about the matter immediately, leaving him with a pounding heart to calm down in the process. Sometimes he believed that Soobin knew about the power only _he_ seemed to hold on Yeonjun. It wouldn’t surprise him either, because Soobin was his favorite person and everyone knew that. But still, he liked to think that he knew his best friend very well and that he would be aware of Soobin’s knowledge of this control that had on him.

“No problem. Just come in, Taehyun will buzz you in, wait—Taehyun! They’re here!” Beomgyu screeched as he turned himself inside the apartment. That’s when Yeonjun heard the ruckus that buzzed within the residence. A mass of people were thrumming in the main lobby that Yeonjun and Soobin could see through the glass door. “Hurry up! We have to start now!”

“Start what?” Yeonjun narrowed his eye at the younger that still had half his body hanging from the window. “Beomgyu what’s happening?”

“Soobin didn’t tell you?” Beomgyu asked in surprise, then they both looked at Soobin, who still held that sheepish expression. He was looking at the door, clearly trying to avoid Yeonjun’s insisting gaze.

“Didn’t tell me what?” Yeonjun repeated gravely.

Beomgyu blinked once, twice, before bursting in obnoxious laughter’s, covering the buzz of the door indicating that they could enter the residency. Soobin quickly opened to door escaping Yeonjun’s questioning looks.

“Oh dear,” Beomgyu wheezed out, “This is going to be fun.”

* *

*

Yeonjun was going to kill Soobin.

He really was.

“You say this three times a day, hyung.” Taehyun sighed as they walked in the residency’s playroom that was so crowded. Yeonjun glanced at the middle of the room where eight chairs were spread in two half circles, while people chatted around it, as if they were waiting for something.

(After flipping Beomgyu off, Yeonjun had entered the dorm and saw the reason why there were so many people. It was in shape of an obnoxious pink and red sign that had uneven-shaped hearts littered on it.

On it was a bold fuchsia **_‘The Luv Trivia!!’_** written.

“What the fuck?” Yeonjun sighed and when he was about to turn to Soobin to kill him, the younger had already disappeared God-knows-where. He looked everywhere to look for him, but he was nowhere to be seen and once again how was it possible that such a big person could blend in so well and hide was beyond Yeonjun. That’s when Taehyun came to him to brief him on what was happening.)

“How did Beomgyu convinced you to agree to this, Hyun. I thought _you_ were the strong-willed one.” Yeonjun whined as they weaved their way to the shared kitchen because Yeonjun needed a drink. He greeted some of his friends in the process. He was surprised to see so many people from their old high school, but it was Beomgyu, after all. His picture was probably under the definition of the notion ‘Social Butterfly’.

“He really wanted to have some kind of trial for his game show he would be hosting hot the College’s Festival and then Kai had the idea to do this.” Taehyun rolled his eyes, “ You know that it’s impossible to stop them once they put their mind to something. I was merely and bystander in this.” he calmly explained and Yeonjun would never get how collected the younger seemed to be in all situations. He was the total opposite of Beomgyu and Yeonjun guessed that it was why their couple worked out so well.

They entered the kitchen and _thank God,_ there was less people in it. The counter had an array of different alcohol and soft drinks, making Yeonjun wondered how planned all this actually was.

They had a group chat. How was it possible that he had never heard of an entire _party_ happening at Beomgyu and Taehyun’s dorms? Then his mind provided that he never really was able to keep up with Beomgyu’s ideas in general and it had gotten even worse when they Yeonjun introduced Kai to their small group. Their group chat notifications always went by a dozen of message at once. You just couldn’t follow everything.

“So it’s like a sort of couples’ test?” Yeonjun asked after taking a well-needed gulp from his beer. They walked out of the kitchen to climb the stairs leading to the couple’s room. Beomgyu was there doing last-minutes preparations apparently.

“Yeah, basically Beomgyu host his mock game show where he’ll ask couples some questions about their partners and depending on how well they know their partner they advance in the game by accumulation points.” They walked to the room, weaving through more people that seemed to be in various degrees of drunkenness and it was _only 6PM_.

The room’s door was already open. Yeonjun entered first and was greeted by the sight of Beomgyu in the most atrocious looking golden suit. It was two sizes too big for him, so it engulfed him, making him look even smaller that he already looked next to Huening kai. Beomgyu looked happy, though. That’s when the older noticed the presence of some familiar faces, all chatting casually, spread in the small room. Including Soobin, who still held that stupidly cute and good-looking expression of sheepishness and apology.

Beomgyu gasped, “Hyung! Finally, you are here.” He smiled at Yeonjun with that blinding grin that would make any stranger melt but Yeonjun had seen what Beomgyu was able to do with that smile. He just knew that it was a tell that chaos would ensue. “Now that all contestants are here, we can start ‘ _The Luv Trial two-exclamation-points’_.”

“Is that how you call it? ‘ _Two exclamation points’_?” Ryujin snorted in Chaeryeong’s shoulder. They were half tangled in each other’s arms and as usual, since high school, Chaeryeong looked flustered to be in such position for everyone to see.

Beomgyu hissed at Ryujin, “Yes, because it sounds cooler like this!”

“Does it, though?” Ryujin retorted from the other corner of the room, holding Chaewon’s waist, “We all know that you copied it from ‘Haikyuu!!’. It sounds dumb.”

“ _You’re_ dumb, Ryujin.” Beomgyu spat back.

“Hum, sorry, need I remind you that we’re doing this stupid favor for _you_!”

“ _You’re_ stupi—"

“Alright!” Taehyun cut his boyfriend before he flipped the whole room down, “Beomgyu calm down. I think that we can all admit that the ‘two exclamation points’ sounds a little dumb. Sorry, babe” He ignored his boyfriend’s whines by giving him a kiss on the forehead, as everyone nodded in agreement at his last statement.

“Now that we all agree to this, the last couple is complete! So, we can do this.” Kai clapped his hands as he loved to do when he was in charge of something.

That’s when Yeonjun processed the situation.

“Excuse me, last _what_?”

“Last couple. You’re participating.” Kai explained as he ushered the other couples out of the room, probably to lead them in the playroom. Yeonjun barely processed what was happening.

He turned to Soobin in question. But Soobin was still looking in the opposite direction, shoulders bunched in nerve. The taller tried to walk out the room with the couples but Yeonjun caught his wrist before he could escape.

In seconds they were alone in the room, Beomgyu giving them five minutes to handle this because _‘They had a schedule and over his dead body would he make his audience wait!’_ Yeonjun would have told him that half of his audience was drunk by now, but he was still fuming from the situation that Soobin had apparently put him in.

“Care to explain what is happening, Choi Soobin?!”

Soobin winced at the use of his full name, something that Yeonjun only did when he was seriously talking to him. “I can explain.” The young said in rush.

Then, silence.

“… So?” Yeonjun huffed when Soobin still hadn’t said anything in third second.

“Oh! I thought you were going to cut me, like you always—”

“Spill it, Soobin!”

“Yes, sorry! So, Beomgyu had this idea for quite a while and apparently his last couple, Jisung and Minho hyung, had some last-minute appointment. Beomgyu looked so desperate and frustrated! It was to the point that we had to stop him from pulling his eyebrow hair like he loves to do.” Yeonjun scrunched his nose at the disgusting reminder of Beomgyu’s stressful coping mechanism, “So, I told him that we would do it for him to calm him down.”

Yeonjun gaped at his best friend that was squirming under his gaze like a stressed puppy and _No!_ he wouldn’t succumb to his best friend’s charms.

“And _why_ didn’t you tell me?”

Soobin gulped, “I thought that you would say no and wouldn’t want to go…”

“And you’re right! I’m out of there.” Yeonjun walked to the door to leave but a soft large hand caught his own. Yeonjun froze at the contact, like he always did whenever Soobin touched him. The younger just had a way to be so tender in the way that he touched Yeonjun, no matter the context and his stomach would systematically churn at the thought of it.

“Please hyung.” Soobin pouted cutely and at this precise moment Yeonjun was sure that the younger knew about the power he held over him. “I promise that it’ll be fine! It’s all for fun, anyways. Everyone here is here either to drink or to get some laughs. They all know that it’s just to entertain Beomgyu’s idea and that it’s not serious!” He said successively as if those statements were actual compelling arguments to make Yeonjun change his mind but _how about that_ , it still worked on Yeonjun.

(Soobin’s thumb was grazing against Yeonjun’s hand also helped a little (read: a lot) to make him reconsider this.)

“If anything, and I really mean _anything_ , makes you uncomfortable, you can leave! Actually, we’ll leave together, okay?” Soobin still held those puppy eyes, his lower lip wobbling a little. To be fair, Yeonjun didn’t even understand why he wanted to do this so bad, but he was a little also afraid to ask Soobin.

Yeonjun was weak. He knew that it was a bad idea, but _Soobin’s big eyes and his beautiful dimples and his—_ he was just weak.

So weak that he pressed his lips in a thin line before nodding.

The light in Soobin’s eyes and the big hug that he gave him to thank him made a worth it, though.

* *

*

“Welcome everyone to the ‘ _Luv Trial two-expectation-points!”_ Beomgyu announced as charismatically as he could when he looked the way he did. Which was hard.

“… Two exclamation points?” Someone – sounding suspiciously like Renjun, said sounding weirdly confused, just like the rest of the audience.

“You pronounce the punctuation? That’s stupid.” Donghyuck scoffed and how was everyone from their high school there.

“You’re just bitter that they decided to choose me and Haknyeon instead of you, Hyuck.” Sunwoo pulled his tongue at the red head. His boyfriend Mark and Jaemin had to hold Donghuck back from pouncing Sunwoo who laughed at him.

“Hey! None of that during our game-show!” Kai hissed at the bickering boys. Beomgyu put his hand on Kai’s shoulder with a weirdly threatening look, even though his blinding smile was still really present, “… Beomgyu hyung’s game-show.”

Yeonjun was just trying to process the situation, ignoring Mark’s murmurs to his upset boyfriend of _‘They just knew that we would win. We were too big of a threat.”_

Then something clicked.

“Why do we have to do it, if Markhyuck volunteered?” he asked Beomgyu.

He was met with silence.

There were at least forty people crammed in this room but somehow no one answered him for a whole twenty seconds.

Beomgyu cleared his throat and cut the silence, “Because _I make the rules,_ hyung. Now shut it and sit down in front of your partner.”

Yeonjun felt his cheeks flushing at the implication, “We’re not partners. I mean we- we are, in a way. Because we’re often together but we’re not—We’re just not like this. I mean—”

“Someone please make him stop. I’m embarrassed for him,” Seungmin pleaded form the couch he was sitting in. That effectively made Yeonjun stopped his awkward spluttering.

“… Okay, then.” Beomgyu said slowly. Yeonjun ignored the pointed looks that the whole room threw his way and sat on the chair, looking at his fingers squirming in the same fashion as his entire body.

This was why he didn’t want to do it.

He didn’t even _dare_ looking at Soobin from how dumb he must have sounded. He was going to ignore him some more but the younger nudged his foot with his own. Yeonjun looked at him and Soobin gave him the sweetest look that held the familiar _‘Are you okay?_ ’. Yeonjun melted inside and found himself nodding softly because as long as Soobin was by his side, even the most awkward situation could be bearable.

“So! Now that everyone is settled down and that you stopped being idiots, we can start this!” Beomgyu said coolly, his Colgate smile shining a thousand watts again. “Let us introduce all of our couples first! Kai?”

Kai smoothly took the lead, “Ah yes! First of all, to my right we have our school’s first lesbian couple. They’ve been together for four years. They’re the reason why so many girls questioned their sexuality and the embodiment of the Wattpad fanfiction trope of JockxNerd. Give it up for _Ryujin and Chaeryeong_!” The crowd cheered for them loudly.

“Yes! Let’s go!” Ryujin cheered as she high fived the people around her. Chaeryeong shyly waved at the crowd as if she was in a pageant and even Yeonjun cooed at her cute demeanor. She was just so sweet and a great contrast to Ryujin badass and outgoing personality.

“Our next couple have been inseparable since middle school, bringing the perfect balance between innocence and debauchery as their relationship progress to a big but cute fuckery. Everyone, give a big round of applause for Woosan!”

The couple somehow cheered even louder than the forty people audience as Wooyoung screeched like an animal.

“Do you guys even know our respective name at this point?” San asked in fit of high-pitched laughter at his boyfriend’s antics.

“You guys have individual name?” Hyunjin asked a little too seriously, making his twin sister, Yeji, smacking him in the head “Of course they do, dumbass!”

“I was just asking, geez,” Hyunjin pouted.

“It’s okay Hyunjin. People just call us Woosan because we’re a team before being a couple. Our individual names don’t matter at this point. Remember San, _Amicus ad aras_.” Wooyoung smiled at his boyfriend before kissing him sweetly. Wooyoung could be so hyperactive but somehow every time he looked at San it was like he could only focus on him. Everyone just found that sweet.

“Oh no, not this Latin bullshit again.” Mingi huffed and Wooyoung squawked at him.

“It has a deep meaning! It means—”

“ _Friends until the very end_ ” the whole room said at the same time, mimicking him. That made Wooyoung whine even harder.

“Okay, we don’t have time for this.” Beomgyu cut them, still smiling almost maniacally, before they ended up in another useless banter.

“Yes, because now it’s time to introduce our third couple. One has real anger management issues and could probably fuck everyone up in this room but the other is a loud—oh, so loud -- sweetheart with the heart of gold and reminds us every day that _they’re working on it_. Give it up for _Sunwoo and Haknyeon_!”

“Hey! I’ll destroy you, Kai!” Sunwoo fumed at the allegations.

“Case and point.” Kai nudged Yeonjun’s shoulder as if he was trying to be discreet about bashing Sunwoo.

“I don’t have anger management issues!”

“Sunwoo, you got banned from an Uniqlo last week because their black jeans weren’t black enough for you.” Chanhee deadpanned and Sunwoo sneered at him, since it was his response to everything. It took Haknyeon holding his hand softly for him to calm down immediately. It always worked like a charm.

“You really have to be crazy to be banned from an Uniqlo, though.” Donghyuck snickered from the other side of the room, “They’re so nice there. What the fuck.”

“They don’t know what black looks like! Someone had to point it out! I did it for everyone out there!”

“Whatever,” Donghyuck scoffed bitterly before glaring at Sunwoo. Their rivalry baffled Yeonjun but he guessed that that was what happened between couples. Although both Mark and Haknyeon were sweethearts that tended not to cause too much trouble.

“…Are you guys done?” Beomgyu huffed, hands on his hip. At this point he wasn’t even trying to keep his commercial smile on. Taehyun was by his side trying not to laugh, but one look in his way from his host boyfriend was enough to make him stop immediately. Beomgyu turned and glared at the two culprits.

“Yes”, “Sorry, Beomgyu” Sunwoo and Donghyuck said guiltily.

He fixed him with a frown a little longer, before turning to Kai.

“Finally, last but not least. Our last couple—”

“We are not a couple.” Yeonjun cut him but Kai waved him off with a ‘psst’.

“You guys are basically married though,” Changbin supplied as almost nodded in agreement, and so much for a friendship, Yeonjun thought. Nobody had his back.

“No, we are not. We’re best friend.” Yeonjun corrected him, feeling embarrassment taking him. He knew how he and Soobin looked. Maybe it was part reason why he had hope that maybe his feelings were reciprocated. But then, he looked at Soobin’s expression, it was unreadable, as it was every time someone mentioned their undeniable romantic chemistry.

That brought him back to reality real quick.

“We’re replacing another couple against our will. Minho and Jisung should be there, but since they’re absent, we’re here.”

“Yeah, right. And why didn’t Beomgyu chose literally anyone else then, huh?” Yuna asked from the stool in the corner of the playroom. Was _everyone_ from their high school there?

“Ask Beomgyu, not me! I didn’t even know I was participating until twenty minutes ago.” Yeonjun hissed at the younger girl who pulled her tongue at him playfully. He swore to god, everyone was here to mess with him that day.

“Everyone, Let’s focus. I didn’t even finish my presentation. So… What do we have here—” Kai skimmed through flash cards and Yeonjun sighed.

“You know us Kai, why do act like—”

 _“Professionalism, hyung._ That’s why.” Kai grumbled back before his face lit, “Here it is. Our last couple—”

“We’re not a fucking coup—”

“—are two peas in a pod. Some say that they were Siamese that were cut at birth—”

“Eww, that would be incest—” Yeji scrunched her nose.

“—Other say that they simply don’t know how to exist without each other and it’s a little annoying—”

“Hey! I told you this expecting to be kept a secret!” Taehyun exclaimed.

“—Give it up for ‘We’re-definitely-not-a-couple-but-we-can’t-sleep-without-a-good-night-text-from-each-other’, YEONBIN!”

The room cheered so loudly that Yeonjun’s ear rang a little, he tried to hide his blush.

“Not a couple, huh,” Beomgyu chuckled and Yeonjun wanted to hex him. “NOW THAT THIS IS DONE. Ladies, Gentlemen, Non-binaries, Welcome to “The Luv Trial—”

“Don’t say it, plea—”

“— _Two exclamation points._ ”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Ryujin grumbled under her breathe but stopped when Beomgyu almost threw his plastic mic at her face.

“Our game will consist of three challenges. Each challenge will eliminate a couple until only two compete in the final, for the title of ‘Beomgyu’s Luv Winners’ – _trademarked_.” Beomgyu explained without catching his breath.

“I’m sorry did you just say _trademark_.” Bang Chan barked out a laughter from his pot next to the speakers. He’s always in charge of audios and music at parties, anyways.

“ _Yup_ , I made the procedure for it, I just need a notary to make it official, then I’ll have the rights to the words _‘Beomgyu’s Luv Winners’_.” Beomgyu answered proudly at the music major, as if it was an actual accomplishment.

“Right… Because people will _totally_ use this term. You’ll _actually_ make money out of it.” Ryujin rolled her eyes and Beomgyu’s eye twitched a little.

“… Minus one point for Ryujin and Chaeryeong!” Beomgyu announced pointing at Eric that was taking care of the ‘Couple’s scoreboard’. The young blond immediately wiped the ‘0’ under the RyuChae section, to put a ‘-1’. Gasps and ‘Oofs’ filled the room.

“What? Why?!” Chaeryeong exclaimed and you just knew that it was serious when Chaeryeong got upset, “What the fuck Beomgyu!” Ryujin hissed.

“Keep being rude to me and that’s what happens. May this be a lesson for all contestant.” Beomgyu glared at Sunwoo who raised his hands in surrender. “No take-backsies. You’ll have to work to gain back those points.”

Yeonjun saw Ryujin’s fist forming tightly as Chaeryeong and Lia tried to calm her down the best way they could on such a short notice. He looked at Soobin who raised his eyebrows in a _‘Shit’s crazy out there, men’_ and Yeonjun laughed.

Kai noticed the small interaction, “Oh it seems like our not-couple already seems to showcase chemistry in the midst of chaos. Doesn’t’ that deserve some kind of reward, hyung?” he asked Beomgyu who was purposefully ignoring Ryujin’s colorful insults.

“Ah, yes. One point for Yeonbin!”

Changmin gasped, “Did we teleport in the Harry Potter Alternate Universe and no one told me or—”

“No, honey, sit down please, you’re drunk.” Chanhee hushed his boyfriend.

“This is getting ridiculous and it hasn’t even started,” Renjun sighed and Jeno just nodded calmly from the corner he was seated in.

“Are we in the lead?!” Soobin gasped in happiness and Yeonjun just wanted to hug him for his cute excitement but also slap him because they weren’t here to win!

“We are,” he answered grudgingly.

“ALRIGHT. CAN WE START, NOW?!” Beomgyu screamed to quiet down the chaotic mess of Ryujin cursing everyone and their mothers, Changmin trying to run straight into one of the walls like it’s the 9 ¾ platform, while Chanhee and Younghoon tried to stop him, and Donghyuck and Sunwoo bickering over who deserved to be there the most.

Yeonjun sighed.

It was going to be long night.

* *

*

It took fifteen minutes to bring back some calm in the playroom and somehow the crowd had grown even bigger in that span of time, new faces appearing. Mostly girls, since this was a boy dorm.

“I didn’t expect the LOONAs to be there,” Beomgyu muttered at Taehyun and Yeonjun, looking at the sorority members chatting between themselves in excitement as they waited for the challenges to begin, “This is getting bigger than what I expected, I don’t know if I can handle it, Tae.”

“You worked hard for this baby. You organized this all by yourself, and you should be proud of it! Now you take that mic and be the amazing host that you were destined to be!” Taehyun said firmly to his boyfriend and you could quite literally see fondness and confidence take over Beomgyu’s body. He gave his boyfriend a small but tender peck that Taehyun gave back eagerly, then as he pulled away, the confident Colgate smile came back full force.

“Alright, let’s start the first round of our game-show!” he said cheerfully, waiting for people to finish hollering and cheering. Yeonjun gulped.

“Our first challenge is a classic. The name is _’How much do you know your Luv’!_ A round of applause, everyone!”

The people clapped although you could here some boos and ‘eeh’s most likely because of the tacky name. “I didn’t have a lot of time for the names, alright!?” Beomgyu hissed at them in poor justification. “Whatever, let’s start!” He gained back his smile just as soon.

“SO. This challenge will consist of _five_ \-- since we took too much time, _thank you guys_ ,” he threw a glare to the contestant a part of the crowd, “…Five questions in total about your partner that they prepared in advance—“

“I didn’t prepare anything, though.” Yeonjun muttered. Beomgyu squinted at him, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“Well it’s a good thing that your _Binnie Baby_ , right here prepared the answers for you two, then.” He said with a fake smile and Yeonjun winced at the nickname that he had given Soobin on a drunken haze at their graduation party. It had been really embarrassing, and Beomgyu made sure to make him remember it each time.

“Fine,” Yeonjun grumbled, “Sorry.”

“Alright,” Beomgyu smiled became more and more authentic, “We have boards and chalk here for the people who will write the answer, you guys will be on the right. The people whose answer have already been written seat on the left.”

They all moved accordingly, not without some raucous, of course. Two minutes later they were all set. Chan had put some kind of game show music as a background through the speaker and oh! Was that Sangyeon and one of the LOONA girls with him?

It just all seemed very ridiculously organized.

He looked at Soobin one last time and the younger looked... eager. It made Yeonjun smile in fondness. They shared encouraging grins and Soobin mouthed a small “We can do it” eyes crinkling cheerfully. Yeonjun couldn’t help but nod and smile back with a bigger grin.

“Alright, you have ten seconds per question to answer. If it’s the right answer you have two points, if it’s close, you have one points and of course you get a zero if it’s wrong.” Kai explained to the contestants as he held his watch to his hand, “And it starts... Now!”

“Alright,” Beomgyu started enthusiastically, “First question, an easy one: What is your luv’s favorite food?” He wiggled his eyebrows as if it was some kind of suggestive question.

It really was easy though, Yeonjun thought. He wrote the answer in three seconds before hiding the board. He looked at his ‘competition’. They all seemed to know it, too.

“TIME’S UP!” Kai screeched making some people jumped. “Let’s hear the answer by order of the couple.”

“So, my Chae’s favorite food is... tuna bibimbap.” Ryujin said confidently, smiling at her blushing girlfriend.

Beomgyu turned to Chaeryeong, “Tuna bibimbap is...” some drumming effect was played, until Chaeryeong turned her board to show ‘Tuna bibimbap :3 <3’ “... The right answer! 2 POINTS FOR RYUCHAE!”

The crowd cheered as Chaeryeong shyly blew a kiss at her girlfriend, making people coo at her.

Just a pure sweetheart.

“Next, we have Sunwoo and Haknyeon! Sunwoo, what is your answer?”

“Haknyeon’s favorite food is meat. I would have been more precise but honestly he loves all variety of it. He’s like a vacuum cleaner every time we go to a barbecue place, at this point,” Sunwoo laughed as his boyfriend loudly chastised him.

“Do we have a point for the couple?” Beomgyu looked towards Haknyeon in question and Haknyeon smiled sheepishly as he turned the board to show ‘Samgyeopsal’. People ‘Ooh’ed in reaction.

“Oh! So close!” Beomgyu commented although he didn’t look that sad, “Since it _is_ meat, we’ll give one point to the couple. How about that, huh?” The crowd clapped and cheered in response. Eric did his job by wiping away the zero to write neatly a ‘1!’.

“Shall we move to our next couple, then. Woosan? Your answer.”

“It’s just San, Beomgyu. And San’s favorite food is obviously marinated crab!” Wooyoung said confidently. San looked at him like he wanted to devour him on spot, garnering few ‘Eww’s and ‘Get a room’ from the audience.

“That’s right.” San turned his board to show the exact answer, “You know me so well, Woo,” he muttered with too much intensity for it to be only about food. Yeonjun winced in disgust just like everyone present in the room.

“Okay, keep it in your pants, please. This is family friendly.” Beomgyu said sternly as if half of the people present weren’t either drunk or high. “But you still get the points, you horny fucks! Congratulations! Eric, do your thang!” And Eric did.

“Finally, our last couple-“

Yeonjun huffed, “We’re not a —“

“Yeah, yeah! What’s your answer, hyung? We don’t have all day for your fits of denial!”

“... I wrote ‘Bread’ because it’s too difficult to quantify how many varieties of bread he likes. He once ditched me on a study session because his favorite bakery was having a sale on their bread.” Yeonjun snorted at the memory. He had been so mad at that time, especially because they had organized the session _for_ Soobin. But seeing Soobin running inside the private study room with bread in his mouth, an apologetic look on; it made Yeonjun forgive him instantly.

See the pattern?

“Hyung! Stop reminding me this,” Soobin whined, “I came a little late, that’s it.”

“Since when being _two hours_ late is ‘a little late’.” Yeonjun laughed at the younger fondly. He looked so effortlessly cute.

God, he was whipped.

“... Should we leave the room or…?”

Yeonjun snapped out of his love trance and saw that everyone was looking at them with knowing looks. He glared at them in embarrassment, knowing that his cheeks were probably red. Soobin’s ears were pink, too.

“Shut up, Gyu.” He grumbled but the younger laughed at them.

“Well, this was a successful answer. Two points for Yeonbin.” Beomgyu ignored them and pointed to Eric who literally wrote ‘3 😍’ under their names.

Yeonjun sighed.  
  
They kept on answering questions in similar fashion.

  
_“What’s your Luv’s grand-parents’ names?”  
_  
(“Minho and Arin,” Sunwoo showed his board in hesitance, and Haknyeon squawked at him.

“You met them last year, Sunwoo! You didn’t get one name right.” Haknyeon exclaimed before throwing the small board at his boyfriend. The audience gasped but Sunwoo caught it before it hit him. They just did this apparently. Throwing things at each other.  
  


This round ended up with zero for SunHak, One for ChaeRyu and two for Yeonbin and Woosan.  
  
Yeonjun knew the answer since he went in vacation at Soobin’s grandmother’s country house each summer. Soobin had lost his grandfather really early in his life and it was also another step where Yeonjun was there for him.)  
  
_“Where is the place your Luv’s perfect date location?”_  
  
(“Our bedroom.” Wooyoung answered before turning his board. The room reacted in disgust, as usual.  
“Gosh, does everything needs to be sexual with you, two?” their hyung, Hongjoong spat at them as his boyfriend, Seonghwa just shook his head in disappointment. The couple didn’t even seem to be sorry.

“We weren’t even referring to sex,” San said as he turned his own board showing the same answer, “The best and most romantic time we spend with each other is in the confine of our bedroom. We have video game dates, sleepovers and cute movie nights there. We have the best time ever together there.” San said fondly, his eyes not leaving Wooyoung’s for a second.

Yeonjun had known Wooyoung since elementary school, and as soon as San had transferred into their school in the middle of the year back in middle school, he had known that Wooyoung would end up falling for him. They had been inseparable, and their relationship had been a natural result of their closeness. They were quite fucking weird together but, to hell if they weren’t just as cute.

“That answer was actually sweet,” Beomgyu said in surprise, “Good for—“

“And we have mind-blowing sex there, too.”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” the host’s nose scrunched in disgust as some of their friends in the audience booed and threw some popcorn at the audience.  
  
This round had left them with one point for Yeonbin and two points for Sunhak, RyuChae and Woosan.  
  
Yeonjun had had his own idea of the perfect date for him and Soobin, so he wrote this, knowing that it would probably be wrong. They barely talked about those stuff after all.

It was a surprise when Soobin turned his board to show ‘somewhere under the stars,” being awfully similar to Yeonjun’s ‘Picnic at the planetarium’.

They had looked at each other with wide eyes because _what were the odds?_

They both knew that Soobin loved the stars but Seoul’s skyline was polluted by the streets lights, so it was impossible for them to see it. Yeonjun had known since high school that if they were to have a date, it would be in the planetarium. He didn’t know that Soobin shared this idea personally, though.

Yeonjun didn’t even pretend to ignore Soobin’s insisting gaze as he was busy reigning down the blush on his cheeks.)  
  
“ _When was the first time that you realized that you loved your Luv?”  
_  
(“I wrote ‘dance competition’. Because that’s when we kissed for the first time after she congratulated me for our performance together.” Ryujin’s grin was the fondest as she explained it. Chaeryeong shared the same dopey smile although she turned her board that showcased a different answer. Some dramatic gasped filled the room.

“Actually I first knew I loved you when you comforted me after that one big fight that I had with my sister,” Chaeryeong answered softly. Ryujin looked at her gob smacked.

“Wait. Which fight?”

“The one about sharing our clothes?”

Yeji barked a laughter, “Gosh, this is such a mood for sibling fights.” She commented. Hyunjin pushed his sister greeting out a ‘Stop stealing my damn clothes!’

On her side, Ryujin still looked surprised.

“But we had only been friends for five months back then. We started dating two years after that.” She said in disbelief and Chaeryeong nodded sheepishly in response.

“I already knew I loved you from since that moment,” she answered shyly.

On cue, everyone cooed. Ryujin looked the most enamored though, as she rose from her chair to take her girlfriend’s face for a series of butterfly kisses.

Beomgyu looked at them with a small smile, “We can all agree that this deserve an extra uwu point. So we won’t give you zero because this was sweet as hell.”  
  
That left this round with the following score: one point of RyuChae and Sunhak, two points for Woosan and zero for Yeonbin.  
  
Actually, Yeonjun and Soobin had completely different answers.

Yeonjun had hesitantly showed his board, since he knew that this question was for _actual_ couples. He had simply wrote ‘Grandad’s funeral’.

If they had to explain a milestone in their relationship it would be the unfortunate death of Soobin’s beloved grandfather. It had been a shock for the entire family, including Soobin. The younger was barely five back then but had been so affected since he was very close to his grandfather.

Yeonjun had made his mission to make sure that Soobin was cared for and okay. He had slept over at Soobin’s house for a whole week, consoling the younger, helping Soobin’s mother when Soobin didn’t want to get out of his room, making sure that Soobin ate regularly, even a little.

Yeonjun knew that the younger didn’t love him like that, but this event, albeit devastating, was the push that made them inseparable, making official their best friend status.

Soobin had answered something different.

A lone ‘birth’.

“Since the day I was born I knew that Yeonjun hyung would be there for me and I love him for it. He’s there for me through tough and happy times, sickness and health and I’ll always be grateful for it.”

Yeonjun clearly hadn’t expected this, just like everyone else in the room because an awkward but fond silence had filled up the room. Yeonjun had to clear his throat and nudge Beomgyu to continue the game.

They had gained zero points but somehow this mismatch of answers hadn’t been considered as a loss.)  
  
“Finally, the last question: What was your biggest fight about?”  
  
The answers had been different for each contestant. Somehow none of the actual couples had agreed on the nature of their last fight.  
  
Yeonjun and Soobin, though, had agreed.  
  
“I wrote ‘distance’,” Yeonjun said quietly, as if everyone hadn’t gotten closer to follow the potential gossip material. Soobin nodded with an unreadable expression and turned his board that had ‘long-distance’.

They were ready to move on but one of the LOONA girls exclaimed, “You _have_ to tell us what it was about!” The rest of the crowd expressed their agreement in various ways. Everyone was getting drunker by the minute but when it came to gossips, they were lucid college/high school students.

Taehyun waved the crowd off, “Guys, we shouldn’t—“

“No, no, it’s fine, right?” Yeonjun asked Soobin with a simple look and the younger shrugged although he wasn’t watching Yeonjun in the eyes. See, their fight had come to an end without an actual solution. They had just... dropped it.

“It was two months ago. I’ve been busier being a dance and business major in Yonsei. So, I didn’t have as much time to see you guys as much,” he looked at all of his friends that nodded in understanding. They all understood how busy he was, being in a SKY university.

Soobin had been understanding, too. At first.

“I tried to balance studying and social life, but at that point it was really hard, with the midterms and everything... So basically we had a fight because Soobin felt that I didn’t spend enough time with you guys—”

“With me.”

Yeonjun cut himself off to look at his best friend who had his arms crossed, a frowny pout on.

“Wh— what do you mean?” Yeonjun asked dumbly.

“You spent all of your time studying, and that was fine, but you made your other friends -which is fine, really- but just gave up on me. When I would tell you about it, you would tell me that it was nothing, that if you were free you would be with me. But you didn’t hyung,” Soobin looked more and more upset, “You spent time with your cool upperclassmen Taehyung and Jungkook or whatever.”

“Soobin,” Yeonjun huffed, because they wouldn’t have this discussion again, in front of other people. Yeonjun was allowed to have other friends than him. “Are you really still reproaching me this?”

Plus, he would never say it out loud, but he mostly had taken his distance because he was trying to get over his crush on his best friend. Yeonjun was going on his third year of college and _of course_ he was swamped with work, but it also was true that he would try to hang out with other people to get over his crush. He didn’t want to stop being friend with Soobin. He was too precious to him. That’s why he wanted to take some time away to get over it and focus solely on their friendship.

He tried to do it subtly too. By answering a little slower to Soobin’s messages, by talking about nonexistent assignments that would take his time or even by seeing other friends. That was where his Taehyung hyung came in the picture.

Taehyung was just a friend.

Sure, anyone could be star struck by his hyung’s looks and even more beautiful personality but Yeonjun had only eyes for Soobin. Their relationship was platonic, that was for sure. Taehyung treated him like a dongsaeng and once Yeonjun had admitted that he hung out with them a little more than usual because he was trying to forget about his crush on his best friend, Taehyung had smacked him on the head and told him to ‘Get it together and man up!’.

That had made Yeonjun realized that nothing could make him forget about his crush, and that he missed Soobin atrociously. So, he came back to his best friend after four days of mere absence. Soobin had been mad and upset, obviously. They had their fight, Soobin reproaching him that he was too absent and Yeonjun had apologized profusely even though his pride had gotten in the way a bit in the midst of the debacle. They had made up shakily three days afterwards and all was forgotten.

Or so he had thought.

“Yes I am still talking about it! You know, it would be fine if you still made time for me— _us_ , sometimes.” Soobin hissed, forgetting that they weren’t alone, “We don’t live that far away from each other, hyung. But no! You just spent all of your time with your hyungs to the point that you barely had time to even text? What the hell?!”

“Okay, guys. Let’s settle.” Taehyun tried to say but the best friends didn’t listen.

“No! You ignored us for almost a month, saying you were busy when you weren’t too busy to be with your precious Taehyung hyung that was _just so talented and handsome and such an inspiration_ ” Soobin imitated Yeonjun’s voice and Yeonjun felt read anger take him. It was unfair.

“You’re being unreasonable, Soobin.” He hissed back, raising up from his chair, “I never put hyung over you. You were and still are my best friend, Soobin. You know that!”

“ _Alright_ , calm down guys,” Chan frowned but they ignored him, too.

“ _Was I_? Was I your best friend? Because it truly felt that all it took was one pretty boy to steal your attention, hyung. We had to wait 48 hours to get a text back!”

“Soobin, Yeonjun oppa, please” Chaeryeong almost pleaded, “It’s fine now,”

“No, apparently, it isn’t!” Yeonjun raised his hands in the air, upset, then he turned to his best friend who had rose from his own chair. “You know I apologized for this, Soobin. I had things to do, and I didn’t make time for you and I _apologized_. You said that we were good, so what gives, huh?”

Beomgyu put his hand on Yeonjun’s shoulder and Yeonjun shoved it away from him. He hated when people touched him when he was angry.

“And deep down,” he sneered at his best friend,”We both know that you’re not mad about this. No, you were just jealous of me having other friends.” Yeonjun said before he could stop himself.

“Me? Jealous of them? Why would I be jealous of them, huh? For being rich pretentious assholes like you turned out to be? No thank you, hyung.”

And then time froze.

Nobody in the packed room said a single word. All you could hear was Soobin’s panting as he realized what he had just said.

“Is that was you think of me?” Yeonjun felt his eyes prickle a little, “That I’m a pretentious asshole?”

Soobin non longer looked mad, only alarmed at the watery tone of Yeonjun’s voice, “No, hyungie, I swear I didn’t mean it like that I—“  
  
“ _Okay_. It’s enough, now.” Sangyeon said decisively, then he turned to Beomgyu, “Announce the results then everyone will take a fifteen minutes break to loosen up, okay?”  
Beomgyu still looked a little distraught from the fight that had just occurred between his close friends but he snapped out of it soon after, nodding frantically.

“Right. Right! So— hum. Yeonjun and Soobin got the point, although I’m wondering why I wrote this question. I’m sorry hyungs,” he said genuinely to the friends, but they were both sulking to the point that they were barely aware of all the gazes on them.

“Good news is — I guess— that you won this round, qualifying yourself for the second mini-game” he looked at the board before turning towards Sunwoo and Haknyeon, “I’m sorry guys but you’re the one that have been disqualified for this game. You only garnered 4 points, RyuChae have 5 points and then it’s a tie between Yeonjun and Soobin and Woosan.” Yeonjun couldn’t even be happy about it, distress taking him from the inside.

Beomgyu sighed dramatically and put his hand on Haknyeon’s shoulder, “I’m going to ask you to leave.”

“Aha, you moron! Ya’ll suck!” Donghyuck laughed at him and Sunwoo’s face was getting red by the second. Sunwoo screamed in indignation, saying that the game was rigged, and the couple started making a scene as people cackled, although some were still shocked from the fight that had just occurred.

Soobin looked at him and Yeonjun could see the guilt in his expression. As soon as Beomgyu announced the fifteen minutes break, Yeonjun left the room, ignoring his friends calling his name.

* *

*

Yeonjun climbed the stairs and locked himself in Beomgyu’s bathroom.

It all felt ridiculous. He should have never agreed to participate to this stupid game. Now he had fought with Soobin over something that should’ve stayed buried and it felt horrible.

Stupid Soobin. Stupid Soobin whose feelings he had probably hurt badly.

Deep down he knew that Soobin didn’t mean calling him those names. Not entirely at least.

It was true that being in Yonsei had changed him little. It was a prestigious university after all. People were highly competitive there and it was a product of an elitist society that pressured you to only be one thing: The absolute best.

Yeonjun had always did just that, too. Put pressure on himself to be perfect. It was a quality but also a flaw, his mother would always tell him.

One thing was sure though. He never had to pretend or had to be perfect in front of Soobin. He just had to be himself and it was enough.

Nevertheless, he had forgot about that when he started studying in Yonsei.

At first, he hadn’t changed all that much but the more he studied the more he lost himself and it showed in the way he acted with his high school friends. It didn’t help that during his first year most of his closest friends – Soobin included- were still in high school while he was in Uni.

So yes, maybe at times he was pretentious, and even a little bit of an asshole. But he knew that his new upperclassmen friends had nothing to do with this change. If anything, they had helped him grow out of this toxic behavior that their Uni had pushed onto him. They had been a great hep and he would surely miss them at the end of the year, especially Taehyung who would graduate this year.

He hadn’t said anything to Soobin, though since up until now only Taehyun and sometimes Beomgyu had called him out on his slight occasional change of behavior.

Hearing this from him hurt a little.

(Okay, it hurt a lot.)

Despite this, all he wanted was to talk, to clarify things with him. They had both said hurtful things to each other, not only that day, but before.   
  


He snapped out of his thoughts when the bathroom door opened brusquely. An out of breath Beomgyu stood there holding Soobin by the arm.

“The next round starts in five minutes,” he pressed, “I want you to be ready by then.” Yeonjun gaped but Beomgyu sneered at him, “No protests! Talk it out. Handle things your way, with hugs or long deep and emotional kiss session — I don’t care, just fix it!” The blond hissed at them as he pushed a whining Soobin in the bathroom, Yeonjun catching him before he tripped and fell. 

“Beomgyu, you can’t just—” 

“I’m missing the LOONA girls dancing downstairs because of _your_ asses right now! Be mature and the role model hyungs you claim to be and TALK. IT. OUT!” The flashy host spat before slamming the door shut and locking it from the outside.

“Beomgyu!” Yeonjun called him through the door, hitting it couple of times, “Beomgyu unlock the door!”  
But Beomgyu probably couldn’t hear him from the ruckus from downstairs, people cheering very loudly. How was it possible that nobody had filed a noise complaint was beyond Yeonjun.

He pressed his lips into a thin line and slowly turned to Soobin. That uncomfortable dreadful feeling took him as he looked at his best friend.

Soobin looked as upset as he was, his frown deepening by the second. Yeonjun wanted to run his thumb through his forehead to get rid of any pain in his expression.

  
They stayed in silence for a long awkward minute until Soobin cleared his throat.

  
“I— I’m sorry for yelling at you in public, like this.” Soobin muttered, “I guess that I still had some anger left from our fight.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Yeonjun scoffed sarcastically before wincing at the sight of his best friend’s frown deepening.

“Sorry...”

“It’s fine,” Soobin huffed. He still avoided Yeonjun’s gaze. “I know you hate to take our personal issues in public, hyung. I was just so frustrated and mad, so I forgot where we were for a minute.”

Yeonjun sighed before nodding, “I get it. I forgot too. We were just in the heat of the moment.... I guess I didn’t expect it to go this far,” he whispered the last part and Soobin’s breath hitched.

“I’m so... _So_ , sorry for saying this, hyung. You know how much you mean to me. I would never think honestly that you are any of those things.”

“No, but in a way you were right. I did change once I started studying there. I did become an asshole at some point—“

“No, hyung, no,” Soobin cut him off, getting closer to take Yeonjun’s hands. The order’s heart fluttered, “I mean sure you were irritating sometimes but it’s normal that you changed a little. I overreacted because I was scared that you were drifting away from us and I just focused this fright on your friends. I know that they helped you a lot with your workload and that they mean a lot to you. I should’ve understood that we can’t always be together when you have free time—“ but Yeonjun shook his head, because he couldn’t hear more of this.

“But I want to, Soobin. I want to be with you... all the time.” He confessed.

“Oh...” Soobin said, and he had a curious glint his eyes that disappeared as soon as it came. It was mesmerizing.

Then, Yeonjun’s words processed to his brain and his eyes widened in realization.

“I— I mean that... I’m so used to be with you that even three years after I left high school, I still feel lost whenever I have nightmares and you’re not with me to help me sleep.” Yeonjun admitted shyly.

Soobin’s soft hands started grazing his own and it did something to his heart. They often found themselves in this position. Face rather close to each other, hands intertwined and eyes mapping the plain of their expression to only see tenderness. This time, though, it felt like Yeonjun could feel this tenderness oozing from Soobin just as much as it did from him.

“I miss you, too, hyung. I miss you when I see a dog and you’re not here to coo at it. I miss you when I go the bakery next to my dorm and you’re not here to take pictures and make fun of me.” Yeonjun chuckled fondly and pushed him a little before pulling him closer through their hands, “I miss you when I’m in my math lecture and you’re not sleeping by my side. We’ve been in college for two years and it still feels so weird not to see you every day, and I don’t feel like I’ll ever get used to it, hyungie.” 

Yeonjun looked at his best friend’s eyes and a swirl of adoration and fondness gleamed in it. It looked beautiful.  
  
Then something shifted.  
  
Maybe. Just maybe, something shifted.  
  
Yeonjun was going to mention it but the door jumbled and in seconds Beomgyu barged into the bathroom.  
Soobin pulled away quickly and cleared his throat, while Yeonjun shuffled awkwardly.

He looked at the blurb of oversized golden that was Beomgyu and he had that knowing smirk that Yeonjun wanted to wipe away.

“I take that you guys made up?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“We did,” Yeonjun answered for the both of them and he looked at Soobin just to be sure. His best friend nodded hastily, his dimples creasing his blushing cheeks as he smiled so happily. A warm feeling spread inside Yeonjun at the relief of them making up.

“Great! Now we can start again because let me tell ya’ll, the pressure is getting higher by the second! Ryujin and Wooyoung are doing a arm wrestle contest. Come see!”

Soobin took Yeonjun’s hands as they followed Beomgyu downstairs, making the older hold his breath.  
  
Just maybe.

  
  
***

  
  
“Alright! Now that Ryujin kicked Wooyoung’s ass in front of everyone and their mothers, we can start the semi-finals of our show!” The audience cheered; the room’s energy renewed after the small break.

“She didn’t kick my ass,” Wooyoung grumbled grumpily as San blew slowly on his hand that held a big angry red mark. “You’ll hear from my lawyer,” he huffed towards Ryujin’s way. She was too busy kissing Chaeryeong sweetly, though. No one was bothered by it, though, since they were too cute with each other.

She pulled away from yet another kiss before rolling her eyes to Wooyoung, “We’re broke college students, you don’t have money for a lawyer. Plus, I beat you fair and square.” She said proudly and Wooyoung huffed in defeat. They really all were broke.  
  


“Everyone! Our last couple made up!” Beomgyu announced, and an array of stares all fixed themselves on

Yeonjun and Soobin’s hands intertwined hands.

Yeji gasped, “OH MY GOD, DID YEONJUN FINALLY CON—“

“Shhhhhh— Shut up Yeji,” Hyunjin muffles his sister’s mouth before she finished her thought. “We’re glad that you guys made up,” he gave them a nervous smile. Yeonjun and Soobin awkwardly smiled at their friends who all gave them various degrees of knowing looks — from supportive smiles from some LOONA girls to a whole eyebrow wiggling choreography from Changbin.

Gosh, everyone knew, huh.

“Knows what?” Soobin asked and _shit_ Yeonjun spoke out loud.

“Nothing, Binnie. Nothing,” he tried to smile as convincingly as possible, although Soobin read him like an open book. He narrowed his eyes at Yeonjun but the other pointedly ignored him.  
  
“Our semi-final game is a cooking challenge, so everyone please go to our communal kitchen!” The mass moved slowly, Beomgyu and the contestant first in line. Yeonjun entered the kitchen. They had gotten rid of the stray bottles of alcohols and the kitchen counter know had different ingredients.

Yeonjun Soobin and the rest all moved behind the counter while the rest of the party moved around them, still making sure to clear the way for them. Fortunately, the kitchen was big enough to welcome all of them, even though some were sat on other laps.

“This challenge’s name is _‘Luvs get cookin’_!” Kai announced enthusiastically.

“It doesn’t even make sense,” one of the Loona girl deadpanned.

“Shut it, Hyunjin noona.” Beomgyu hissed at the girl and she pulled her tongue because apparently it was a thing that their generation still did frequently. “I already explained that I was short on time.”

“That doesn’t justify the lack of sense, though,” Yeosang intervened, getting few hums of agreement from others in the room, some even playfully booing and throwing some popcorn in Beomgyu’s way.

Beomgyu’s smile twitched again.

“... Whatever.” He grumbled before huffing a “I don’t get paid enough for this.”  
“You’re getting paid?” Kai inquired.

“ALRIGHT,” Beomgyu smiled again, completely ignoring Kai’s question, “This challenge is simple. You have ten minutes to make pancakes. Here you have the ingredients to make it. Now, this is an exercise of chemistry and not the high school traumatic kind, hahaha,” Beomgyu expected some chuckles from the audience but it was like everyone agreed to gratify him with a reaction. He muttered how unfair they were in his breath while Taehyun patted his arm in faux comfort.

Kai took the lead “Anyways. The couple who make the best pancake and showcase the best affinity will be ranked first!” People cheered again and Beomgyu glared at everyone in betrayal.

“Our first couple is... Woosan!”

Said couple hollered to work up the crowd that responded eagerly.

“You guys have ten minutes. There is no recipe of course, but I’ve been told that at least one partner of each couple hade made pancakes once so it’s also a memory game. Right, Beomgyu hyung?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Beomgyu was still sulking in his corner, Taehyun trying to coax him to participate again.

“... okay, then.” Kai kept his composure before turning to the first couple,

“Woosan, are you ready?”

Two determined Yes were shouted, then the chronometer was started.

  
***

  
  
Overall, Woosan did pretty good. The time went by in a blur and San knew the recipe pretty well from previous cooking experiences. They moved quickly, too, and weren’t overwhelmed by the ticking clock.

The issue lied with Wooyoung. See, Wooyoung was passionate about cooking — he had mentioned once that he wanted to have his own cooking YouTube channel. So passionate that he would spill the batter in enthusiasm, let the first pancake burn, add too much butter to the pan.

His enthusiasm was funny to watch honestly, and San’s patience was a sight to see. They usually were equally excited or calm, but during the challenge San showed his calm and meticulous side that matched weirdly well with Wooyoung over-excitement.

When it was time to taste, Taehyun had coaxed Beomgyu out of his childish pouting session with kisses in private, making the host flustered enough to make him forget about the previous issues. The judges were Beomgyu, Kai and Kevin, since they needed the opinion of someone older.

“I’m not that old, though. Sangyeon hyung and Vivi noona are older than me!” Kevin pointed out, still offended and Jacob, his boyfriend rolled his eyes fondly muttering a ‘Sure, Love’.

“We wanted someone who came from North America to judge the authenticity of the pancake taste, Kevin hyung.” Kai explained softly and no one could argue with this. Kevin knew his around pancake, he was actually famous for it back in high school.

“Fine,” Kevin sighed, then in seconds his pout turned into an overly serious expression as his slouched position straightened up, “Let’s taste some pancakes, then. Jacob, honey? Maple syrup me, please.”

Out of nowhere his boyfriend pulled out a bottle of maple syrup that had ‘Maple Boyz’ written in English on it. Kevin took it and expertly opened it to pour the liquid gold on the pancakes delicately. Yeonjun swore he heard Jacob gasp quietly.

After a quick taste, and more of Kevin’s extra shenanigans they gave the pancake the grade of 6.5 out of 10. Eric wrote it under their names, Chenle and Jisung having joined him as they doodled under the names with the leftover chalk.

“The taste was good, but it was a little dry,” Kevin noted, “You moved through the kitchen pretty fluidly. Wooyoung was chaotic but San still kept his cool and it turned out better that what we expected. Clearly you guys have a great chemistry.” Beomgyu and Kai nodded in agreement. San and Wooyoung sounded thrilled despite the average score, “That being said, for the love of God, _how_ do you burn the inside of the pancake, Wooyoung?”

“I’m sorry Kevin hyung,” Wooyoung actually looked sorry.

“It’s Judge Moon for you.” He threw him a sharp look and few gulps could be heard in the room.

Chaeryeong and Ryujin got 5.5 out of 10.

“Seriously?” Ryujin barked, and Chaeryeong looked so alarmed that Lia had to hold her to keep her from falling.

“Honestly you got 5 points because you worked great together. Maybe a little too great. You could have speared us some lovey-doviness, and I say that as the host of a couple’s game show.” Beomgyu scrunched his nose, probably at the memory of the cheesiness of Chaeryeong and Ryujin’s dynamic while they were cooking.

“So, we only have 0.5 points for the pancakes?” Chaeryeong pouted.

“I think you focused so much on yourselves that you forgot about cooking something edible,” Kevin poked at the burnt piece of pancake, if you could even call it a pancake. It was so hard that Kai could barely cut a piece without putting his whole weight on the cutlery. “You girls were cute, though.” He said in faux nonchalance before squawking when Chaeryeong cooed and hugged him against his will.

When they cleaned the utensil, Yeonjun approached Ryujin to nudge her. “Are you disappointed?” he asked her playfully, since it was their dynamic. He just had never met someone as competitive as Ryujin, which they both had in common.

She rolled her eyes although they still were glued to her girlfriend that refused to let go of Kevin, Jacob having joined to the cuddle fest.

“No, I’m fine with this. I kind of don’t care about this show, you know?” she laughed at her girlfriend’s cute antics. Soobin joined the pile of whining since he loved to annoy his hyungs. Kevin actually screeched at the extra weight and that only made Soobin laugh his squeaky even harder, his eyes gleaming under the kitchen’s artificial light.

“Yeah, I get it…” he sighed fondly. Soobin’s eyes squinted as he made grabby hands at Kevin and it was _just so cute_.

“Wow, you are so whipped, huh? Do you realize you just said that out loud?” Ryujin laughed in disbelief and _shit_ , he really had to control his mouth.

“Sorry,” he said, not really sorry. At this point he couldn’t hide how he felt for his best friend. It was just too obvious for everyone, except Soobin himself maybe.

“If it means anything, I’m actually rooting for you guys.”

Yeonjun chuckled awkwardly.

“We’re not a couple, though.” He said in self-depreciating reflex.

Ryujin actually scoffed at him, wiping her hands on the purple apron she had tied around her waist, “Like that changed anything.”

* *

*

It was now time for them to cook the pancakes. Soobin knew the recipe since he liked the fact that pancakes looked like ’sweet bread but flat’. Yeonjun had never cooked with him before, though, so this was a whole new experience for them.

“It’s going to be fine,” he muttered to a now nervously shaking Soobin, “We got this, okay?” the younger barely had the time to answer before Beomgyu’s voice boomed in the room.

“Everyone please can I have your attention? Our last cou—”

“— _Not a couple_ —”

“—ple will now do their challenge. Are you guys ready?”

“I mean, not really—”

“Perfect!” Beomgyu said mischievously, “You guys can start in Three… Two… One, BAKE!”

“Okay hyung, bring me the flour, sugar, the baking powder, please.” Soobin ordered and Yeonjun go on the move to do just that. He brought the ingredients while Soobin used the cups to approximately measure the ingredients and pour it in the large bowl in front of them. “Sif this with a little bit of salt and baking powder, I’ll turn in the stove,”

“Wow, they’re actually using the right ingredients,” Kevin commented.

“They’re moving so fluidly in the space, as if they belonged to the kitchen! Whoever said that women had to be there clearly never seen them in action.”

“Really, Beomgyu? That’s why you have no friends.” Ryujin scoffed and Beomgyu flipped her off.

“I’m melting the butter in the microwave. Can you do a well in the center of the bowl?” Soobin asked gently after some time and Yeonjun obeyed once again. Soobin programmed the microwave and took the opened milk bottle to pour some milk in the small measurement cup. Once the butter was melted be brought the hot cup of melted butter, the milk and a single egg to Yeonjun who was patiently waiting for him.

Then, Soobin moved behind him, so close that Yeonjun’s back was flushed against Soobin’s broad chest.

“Oh, this is getting interesting.” Changbin commented for everyone seemingly since the whole room ‘OOH’ed in unison, some even doing wolf whistles.

Yeonjun barely heard them, though, his brain only focusing on the feeling of Soobin’s large and warm chest against his back and _what the hell was happening?_ The stove must have been on high heat because he was getting warmer by the second.

“You need to make a bigger well for the ingredients,” Soobin explained in his ears and _he couldn’t possibly not know the effect he had on him._

“What effect, hyung?” Kai smirked at him. Yeonjun blanched as he looked all the knowing looks thrown his way by his ex-high school friends and Fuck.

He had thought out loud again!

“Nothing!” he spluttered as he tried to collect himself, although Soobin’s hot breath against his neck was too much to handle.

Soobin barely seemed phased by what he was doing and he easily worked around Yeonjun to finish pouring the ingredients in the bowl. He was doing completely unbothered, guiding yeonjun’s hands to stir the mix as if Yeonjun couldn’t do it on his own.

In five minutes, they were done.

“We did it,” he smiled in Yeonjun’s neck and it took everything for Yeonjun not to melt like the butter they had incorporated in their batter.

Soobin pulled away ( _Oh, no_!) and moved to the pan on the stove that was waiting to get used.

“Yeonbin seems to be doing great for now, but will the cooking actually go well for them? Let us remind you that we want something edible. Apparently, we hadn’t actually clarified this for the previous contestants— OW! Ryujin don’t make me take off some more points!” Beomgyu whined at Ryujin smacking him on the head. She didn’t’ even look sorry.

Soobin poured some grease on the pan and lowered the heat expertly. While the grease spread on the pan, he threw an encouraging smile towards Yeonjun’s way.

“You can cook the first one.” He placed the batter next to them. Yeonjun looked at him skeptically.

“Shouldn’t you do it? You’re the one that knows how to do it.”

“I trust you, hyung.” Soobin said easily, as if Yeonjun’s heart wasn’t somersaulting in his chest in love.

“Alright, you’ll do the rest, then. Just in case,” he said before using the scoop to scoop some matter mix and pour it clumsily on the pan. It was uneven on one side of the pan, and pancake grew to be hot dog shaped more than a perfect circle.

“Wow, Yeonjun oppa. Wondering how you survived those last three years when you can’t pour some batter on a pan normally.” Yeji commented and why was everyone out there to get him like this, huh?

“It almost looks like—Oh God, Jun!” Wooyoung barked a loud laugh as people huddled around the the pan to see what the fuss was about.

“A dick. He made a pancake dick, everyone!” Beomgyu almost screamed.

“Shut up! Stop it!” Yeonjun swatted Donghyuck’s phone that was taking a picture of the pancake, “It doesn’t look like—”

“It looks like yours Woo!” San said in disgusting fondness and the whole room emitted a chorus of fake gagging and whines, a lone “Oh hey! It does!” from Wooyoung on the other side of the counter.

“Out of the way!” Soobin chastised them, “This pancake is great, Junnie hyung,” he said in the sincerest tone and even Yeonjun knew that this pancake was hideous but Soobin’s earnest look almost made him believed that it wasn’t the case.

“I’m not eating a Wooyoung’s dick shaped pancake,” Kevin scrunched his nose as Yeonjun flipped it and wow, the batter had somehow drew some lines that suspiciously looked like veins.

“I cannot not see it.” Chanhee blinked at the monstrosity.

“Is this what you gays fuss about? It’s so unappealing looking.” Ryujin spat in almost disgust.

“Like a vagina looks better,” Changmin scoffed out. He still looked very drunk, if the swaying against Chanhee said anything.

“Yeonbin should do a vagina pancake to compare!” Yuna suggested in excitement and most girls in the room cheered and clapped.

“Yeonjun hyung doesn’t even know what a vagina looks like though. He’s been gay his entire life,” Soobin provided like it was something that should have been put on the table. He didn’t even look like he knew he had said it, he was too focused on the second pancake. It was way better looking, way rounder.

“What about you, Soobin?” Changmin slurred from the other side of the counter, head rested on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“What about me?” Soobin rose his eyes from the pan to look jumpily at his drunk hyung. Yeonjun felt his shoulder tense all the sudden.

Changmin didn’t stop though, “Surely you’ve seen a vagina. You hooked up during the freshmen orientation week, I remember that—”

“Alright honey!” Chanhee cut his boyfriend but Yeonjun was already gaping at his best friend.

He hadn’t known about that.

“You hooked up that week and you didn’t tell me?” he dared asking and something steered in his stomach and it was far away from the earlier somersaults.

Soobin looked embarrassed as he busied himself by flipping the second pancake, “I didn’t tell you? I was sure I did.” He muttered.

Yeonjun didn’t know how to feel.

From the one side he wasn’t the jealous type. Sure he was practically in love with Soobin, but even he had hooked up a few times. He didn’t blame Soobin if he did, too.

On the other side he was hurt because Soobin had hid it from him; _why would he do that_?

“You didn’t tell me, Soobin. I would have remembered,” looking away when he was that Soobin was shifting in awkwardness.

“Well, it happened and It was weird and… embarrassing? I was too drunk to remember, anyways.” Soobin tried to dismiss it.

“Well, _ouch_. I thought that it was fine.” Someone chuckled in the crowd.

The whole kitchen turned in direction of the voice and it was a small jet-black haired girl sat amongst the LOONA girls. She looked like a baby wolf and something even worse steered in Yeonjun because damn, she was _cute_.

“Olivia?” Soobin gulped in recognition.

“Who the hell is Olivia?” another small blond girl laughed, next to Olivia.

“It’s the fake name I gave Soobin-ssi the night we hooked up,” not-Olivia explained coolly and Yeonjun’s eye twitched because not only was she _cute_ , but she was _cool_ too.

“It wasn’t your real name?” someone in the crowd – Jaemin? – asked because no one dared to.

“No, I’m Hyejoo.” She bowed slightly, “Sorry, Soobin-ssi, I thought it would make things easier. Although you don’t seem to remember a lot what happened, right?”

“What do you mean?” Felix asked and _seriously was their whole school there or…?_

“Soobin and I didn’t have sex.” Hyejoo announced, garnering few gasps, “We were about to but he gave up last minute because _‘He couldn’t do this to him_ ’, whoever this him was.” She explained in a non-chalet tone, “I helped, though. It made me realize that I was definitely gay, too.” she commented calmly as if she hadn’t said what she had just said.

But time froze.

Again.

Everyone’s eyes were on Soobin who was squirming under the unwanted attention.

“Soobin?” Yeonjun whispered.

Soobin looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, “hum, I— I didn’t mean tha—I guess that I was sayin—”

“THE PANCAKE!” Beomgyu interrupted and that’s when they realized that the pancake had caught fire on the inflamed pan and how did they miss ?!

“OH GOD!”

“FIRE! FIRE!”

“SOMEONE GETS SOME WATER!”

“YOU’RE LITERLALY STANDING NEXT TO THE SINK, HYUNJIN!”

“I SMELL HAIR! I SMELLED BURNED HAIR!”

“HALF OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM’S HAIR ARE ALREADY BURNT FROM BLEACH! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!”

“MAKE IT STOP—”

“ALRIGHT. EVERYONE MOVE!” Haseul pushed everyone and activated the fire extinguisher that was in her hands to wipe out the fire clean.

Thirty seconds later, once it was all out, and that everyone processed what had happened, everyone cheered.

“HOORAY FOR HASEUL-SSI WHO SAVED US ALL FROM DEATH AND A POTENTIAL EVICTION FROM THIS DORM!” Beomgyu screamed and the crowd followed ecstatically as if they hadn’t just screamed their lungs out in pure over-the-top panic minutes ago.

Yeonjun barely heard the cheers as he realized that he was huddled in Soobin’s arms, face hidden in the crook of the taller’s neck. In the midst of the chaos Soobin had swooped him away from the flames and hugged him as if to… protect him?

He slowly raised his head to see that Soobin was already looking at him, eyes full of concern.

“Are you okay, hyung?” he asked seriously, his eyes quickly sweeping Yeonjun’s face to see if he had any injuries.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured him, still a little stunned from the events and by the way Soobin had made sure that he was okay by pure instincts. “Are you okay?” he asked shakily.

Soobin blinked, “Yes, yes of course. But you were the one near the flames.” Soobin said so selflessly. “Are you sure that you didn’t burn yourself anywhere?” the taller pulled away from the embrace to shake Yeonjun’s whole frame.

“I’m—okay. Thanks.” He answered completely flustered.

(Oh, the somersaults were back.)

* *

*

“If I was reasonable, I would call it quits and end this,” Beomgyu sighed in front of the whole party. They had come back in the playroom after cleaning the kitchen. Yeonjun and Soobin’s pancakes had been wiped out by the fire, including the dick pancake.

“Oh, no!”, “We want a winner!”,” You better not bitch!”

“ _Alright_ —Okay, it’s not necessary to _curse_ , everyone,” Beomgyu glared in Seungmin’s direction. He didn’t even look sorry. He never did.

“We can’t just give up when we’re so close to have an official winner, too.” Kai explained.

“But Yeonbin’s pancakes burned. What are they ought to do!” Mark pointed in all seriousness, like he wasn’t high off his mind, and Donghyuck kissed his cheeks because apparently that did it for him.

“Well, it is true that the pancakes are inedible, and this time it wasn’t the contestants’ fault,” Beomgyu nodded, ignoring Ryujin’s hisses and Chaeryeong’s sighs.

“So… They lost?” Chenle asked in horror, huddled next to Jisung, Eric, Jeongin and what seemed to be the youngest from the LOONA sorority.

“Well, normally it should be a disqualification, since they don’t have any pancake to present us,” Kevin explained diplomatically, then he flipped off the people who boo’ed up. “But! This is a chemistry challenge before anything else.”

The whole room’s breath hitched in unison.

“And it was evident that they held a chemistry never seen before since the beginning of the competition.”

“They even gave us that moments you only see in the movies. Like that pottery scene/back-hug in the movie ‘ _Phantom of the Opera_.’”

“It was in ‘ _Ghost’_ , Hyunjin.” Yeji corrected him in the mix of fondness and disgust.

“Oh, right!”

“Plus, there was that moment during the fire. Soobin quite literally swooped Yeonjun from the flame to protect him. It didn’t even feel like it was real life.”

“And then they—”

“Okay, we got it,” Yeonjun cut them. he was embarrassed enough and frankly he was tired. “Are we out or not?”

“Well,” Kevin started, “You get a one point for the pancake because even if we didn’t eat it, the recipe held up and Yeonjun’s pancake was original, I guess.”

“And you get a five for the chemistry because _holy damn_ , you know,” Beomgyu completed the explanation.

“So…” Yeonjun muttered, “We’re not out?” he asked in disbelief.

“You are… NOT!” Beomgyu announced and once again the crowd started hollering. “I’m sorry Ryuchae but as you came last, you’ve been eliminated.”

Ryujin and Chaeryeong nodded in understanding and Yeonjun was surprised that Ryujin accepted defeat so easily, then he remembered what she had said earlier. He looked her way and she winked at him. he smiled back, almost gratefully.

He turned to Soobin to see his elated expression, “I can’t believe we’re in the final, hyung!” he shook Yeonjun’s frame back and forth in excitement, «I actually want to win this now.”

Yeonjun eventually gave in and laughed with him.

Maybe he wanted to win, too, now.

* *

*

“We’ve finally reached our final challenge – and god damn, let’s hope that it goes better when I’ll host the real show for the college’s festival, am I right?” Beomgyu laughed to himself, now seeming unbothered by the lack of response of the public that basically did it just to make him mad. Taehyun looked proud.

“Our two last couples are two opposite, but they pulled through. One the one side we have the horny but lovely Woosan! On the other side we have the ‘We’re-not-a-couple-couple’ Yeonbin! Give them a round of applause please!” the audience screamed and clapped loudly some people calling their names like they were groupies.

“What will be the last challenge?” Jongho asked, speaking for the first time of the night. They really had spent three hours doing this already, huh.

“Glad you asked Jongho hyung! The challenge’s name is ‘ _Can you feel the Luv?’_ — NO COMMENT!” Beomgyu hissed before anyone made any comments about the lameness of the name. “Like the name indicates, the last challenged is about the senses and how well do the partners recognize their Luvs’ while being blindfolded.” He wiggled his eyebrow at the las part and some of their classmate wolf-whistled commenting some ‘Kinky’s here and there.

Kai followed, “It will be in three phases. First, it’ll be a hearing test. We have recordings of people singing and the partner must recognize the voice of their Luvs. All while being blindfolded, because why not!”

Beomgyu nodded, “The second test is smelling. You’ll smell three different random people while being blindfolded and just like the first test, you have to recognize them.”

“Finally, the last test is based on actual touching. You’ll feel different people and must find your Luv.” Kai clapped in excitement.

“If you get a tie on the two first test, the winner will be chosen based on who answers right _first_ on the last test.” Yeonjun was impressed by how thought out the whole thing was. Beomgyu had actually done something seriously. Once again, Taehyun held a fond and proud gaze to his boyfriend that answered some question that San had.

Yeonjun was proud of his dongsaeng, too.

Once he had made sure that everyone understood and they had brought the blindfolds, Beomgyu clapped his hands.

“Kai! Go blindfold Yeonjun and Wooyoung! Chan hyung, please prepare the recording of the songs.” Everyone got to work while Yeonjun and Wooyoung were forcefully seated on the chairs placed for the challenge.

“Why do _I_ get blindfolded, huh?” he whined as Kai attached the blindfolded – a red bandana. Wooyoung on the other hand seemed eager to be blindfolded and frankly, Yeonjun didn’t want to know why.

“Because you didn’t record your voice. Plus, everyone and their mothers know how you sound mister self-titled-hit-boy.” Yeonjun didn’t have anything to say to that so he simply pouted and crossed his arms.

Not being able to see anything was weird to him. He liked to be aware of his surroundings at all time and being rid of his sight didn’t feel all that great. He fidgeted in nerve.

It was true what they said about your other senses being enhanced when you had one missing. He could hear the light chatters from his old school mates from different corners, Beomgyu’s grumblings and Chan light chuckles at his left and Eric, Jisung, Chenle and Yeojin chatting on his right.

His hands twitched because it still felt unfamiliar, though.

Then he felt softness enveloping his hand.

“You’re okay, hyung? Not uncomfortable?” an even softer although deep voice asked him. Yeonjun smiled gently, nodding in the direction of the sound.

“I’m fine, Binnie, don’t worry. Let’s win this, okay?” he said lowly, not being sure of who could hear them. Soobin hummed and squeezed his hand tenderly one last time before letting it go.

“We’re ready, now. Everyone please quiet down for the first part of our ‘ _Can you feel the Luv’_!” a voice, probably Beomgyu, said in excitement. “We’ll pass five recordings and both of you will have to tell us what number your Luvs’ recording is. Understood?”

“Yes!”, “Hum.” Wooyoung and Yeonjun agreed.

“Alright then. Chan hyung, roll it!”

Then, Yeonjun focused on the voices. He listened to a lot of music so he didn’t have difficulty recognizing voice colors, vocal ranges and even the voice tone tendencies that made voices different. For instance, it was evident that the two firsts recordings were Donghyuck and Jongho, respectively, their voice being so unique in their own, powerful way.

Now, the thing was that Soobin never sang for Yeonjun. Sure, he would hum and even sing-song when they hung out, but Soobin was actually shy about those things.

The third recording couldn’t be him since the voice was too gravely for it to be Soobin.

By the end of the listening session, Yeonjun hesitated between the second to last and last recording. The first one of the two had a melodious voice, soft but still controlled. The person was a great singer, Yeonjun had thought, as they sang Dean’s song ‘Instagram’ almost intimately.

The last recording, though?

It was so soft that it sent shivers down Yeonjun’s spine as the person sang ‘Fairy of shampoo’ so prettily. Listening to it felt like touching silk, if it made sense.

“So, guys? Who do you think was your Luv? Wooyoung hyung?”

Yeonjun’s ears perked as Wooyoung hummed calmly, “It was the fourth one. I know my Sannie’s voice by heart. He loves to sing in the shower.” Yeonjun could hear the smile in Wooyoung’s voice.

“That is correct, Wooyoung hyung!” Yeonjun started at the sudden cheering from the people around him. “Now, for Yeonjun hyung?”

He reviewed in his mind quickly in his mind the two recordings. The soft ‘Fairy of shampoo’ chorus resonated in mind.

_Whenever I see him I’m not lonely anymore  
My sad heart disappears and goes somewhere far away too_

Yeonjun actually believed that the person had changed the lyrics a little because surely enough, Jang Jungil – the author of the song - didn’t refer to a man when he sang this love song. Something in his chest fluttered at the thought.

“It’s the fifth one.” He said firmly.

Beomgyu spoke, “That, Yeonjun hyung, was…”

He held his breath.

“… CORRECT! You both get the points for the first challenge.” More cheering and Yeonjun could almost hear Soobin’s elated laughter through them.

***

“Our second test will begin now. Yeonjun and Wooyoung will have to use their sense of smell to distinguish their Luvs from others. Who will win this and secure their spot as the winner? We’ll see it right away!”

Yeonjun gulped. He was kind of scared that they make him smell nasty stuff just to mess with him. He had expressed this concern to Beomgyu earlier but the host had shrugged it off with a ‘ _It’ll be fine’_ so unconvincing that Yeonjun flipped him off – although he probably pointed the finger in the wrong direction.

“Alriiight, Kai and I will make you smell successively tree different people at the same time, then I’ll ask you for you official answers. Okay?”

Beomgyu didn’t wait for their answers and screeched a “Start!”

Then Yeonjun got a little overwhelmed.

The first person smelled like flowers. Rose maybe with a hint of lavender. Definitely not Soobin, since he disliked overly sweet smells like this.

The third person smelled like axe soap and Yeonjun almost thought that it was Soobin then he remembered that the younger had stopped being obsessed with the overly manly scents that the Axe bodywash provided in the middle of their high school years.

The second smell was more tamed but one whiff of it was enough for Yeonjun. The familiar smell of sweet pastries mixed with the buttery potency of the pancake that they had cooked earlier, adding to the mint scent from Soobin’s constant Mentos consumption was more than enough.

“It’s the second one,” he spilled before he could stop.

“Okay but I didn’t give you your cue, though—”

“I don’t need it, it’s the second one, Gyu. It just... It’s him” He said shyly. _It just smelled like home._

“Aww, that’s sweet hyung,” Beomgyu cooed.

He really needed to be careful when he thought out loud, he throught. Hopefully Soobin hadn’t heard it, although he was most likely close to him at the moment.

“It’s the second one for me too. I recognize the cologne that he wore before we left our dorm.” Wooyoung said more confidently.

“It wasn’t your time to—You know what? Whatever. No one respects me, anyways here, but _how about that_! You’re both right!”

Gasps and cheers filled the room.

“You know what this mean?” Beomgyu’s tone shifted to something more mischievous.

“Sweet baby Jesus,” someone that sounded awfully like Chaeryeong muttered somewhere in the back.

Beomgyu laughed almost maniacally “It means that it’s a tie and that you’ll have to fight off your title in our last but not least—”

“Don’t say it—”

“— _Touchy-feely test_!”

“It just sounds so wrong, you know?” someone mutteredd and Yeonjun agreed with them.

* *

*

“Ladies, Gentlemen, Non-binaries! If you’re still sober enough for this, welcome! Welcome to the finale of our competition!” Beomgyu nearly screamed, matching the volume of the audience that was hollering to the top of their lungs. Some people even screamed their names. Arrays of ‘Team Woosan!’ and ‘Team Yeonbin!’ could be heard and Yeonjun wondered when did his turn into a Twilight Edward vs Jacob debacle.

“Woosan have been together for years; they belonged to each other and deserve to be together!’ someone said to his right. It sounded like Lia.

Someone that had a nasally voice similar to Seungmin answered back, “But Yeonbin are the underdogs. They’re so oblivious and dumb but damn if they don’t look dreamy together! They’re obviously the better choice.”

“Okay—We’re _right here_! Geez, guys.” Yeonjun hissed and he must had looked ridiculous blindfolded, probably screaming at the wrong person on his right.

“Let’s just get this over with, please before everyone gets too drunk to even walk home.” And Yeonjun recognized Sangyeon soft but firm but full of wisdom voice.

“Right. Right. Wooyoung hyung, Yeonjun hyung, you’ll have to be up for this.” Kai announced and before Yeonjun could say anything two hands took his arms to put him on his feet.

“Perfect! Now you remember the rules, right? It’s a speed contest. You have to through the three people currently present in front of you by touching them until you give your answer. To make it fair, you’re only allowed to give your answer once! If you give you answer first and it’s wrong, then your competitor won.” Beomgyu explained thoroughly and Yeonjun nodded to tell him he understood.

“We’ll have someone guide you from one person to the other. Just tell when you want to switch and they’ll lead you the fastest. To sitch you’ll have to provide valid arguments why you think that it’s not your Luv, though.” Beomgyu clarified as Yeonjun felt someone take him by the arm gently. They made him walk three steps until he felt a presence in front of them.

Here they were.

Their win would be determined by this.

Frankly, at first Yeonjun didn’t care less if they lost but his morally questionable strong sense of competition and Soobin’s excited smiles had made his mind do a full 180.

He didn’t know what the future reserved his and Soobin’s relationship. A lot had happened in the span of three hours and had never felt closer to his best friend. It meant something.

Or maybe he was delusional. Who knew?

Right now, he mostly wanted to prove himself that Soobin and he were actually romantically compatible. Lots of the tests they had went through were won because they were close friends. But maybe this last test would be real sign that they could work?

It was rather silly but Yeonjun was a romantic after all.

“Are you guys ready?” Kai asked seriously. Both Yeonjun and Wooyoung hummed.

“One… Two… Three… START!”

Then hell broke loose, people cheering so loudly that Yeonjun had to breathe out to focus.

Yeonjun’s hands were lead to a flat hard chest. He ran his hands over the smooth plane but then he felt the fabric of the shirt. He quickly slid his hand up until they reached the ears of the person. There were a lot of earrings—

“Next!” he said quickly, “They’re pierced and Soobin didn’t have time to wear earrings today.”

“Alright,” The girl who guided him led him to the second person. He could her Wooyoung saying that the person he was with wasn’t his boyfriend.

He had to hurry.

The second person was a little taller than the first, but he had lots of tall friends. It wasn’t enough. He ran his hand through their arms, and they were firm, although not super muscled. He ran his hands up and took a step closer. He heard a breath hitch, but he ignored them.

His hands felt the person’s ears next. The ears didn’t have any earrings so that was a good tell. He dared sniffing a little and he smelled mint, making him smile a little.

“Soobin?” he said softly, only for him and the person to hear.

Finally, he cupped the person’s face. The cheeks were soft, like they took care of their skin and Yeonjun ran the tip of his fingers to the middle of each cheeks. He felt the small dimples and his smile grew a little more.

“I’m pretty sure that it’s you, Binnie baby.” The nickname slipping out purposefully to et a reaction out of him.

He was about to confirm his suspicious by pulling the cheeks to test the stretchiness before he felt arms rounding his waist.

Yeonjun gasped a little in surprise as the person pulled them even closer. This time people around them gasped with him.

“What are you—”

He was cut off by a pair of soft lips taking his own, literally taking his breath away. He gasped against the lips, but they were relentlessly tender as they embraced his own. The taller pulled him closer as Yeonjun untensed and started kissing back so sweetly, so gently, as soon as he felt the minty taste.

Yeonjun forgot where he was, muted out the wolf whistles and choruses of ‘Fucking finally!’s and ‘About damn time!’s as he succumbed to the taste of _Soobin’s_ lips.

Because it could only be his best friend who held him both as gently as intensely as he was right now.

Soobin kissed like he did everything. With a carefulness passion and great focus to make sure that they both enjoyed their times. He slipped his tongue and Yeonjun’s mind and it was like in unlocked a new feeling in Yeonjun that sent shivers in his spine.

Kissing Soobin was even better that he could have imagined, and he felt like he was floating every time that their tongue graze against each other softly.

It was the “That’s my Sannie!” that brought them back on the earth realm.

Yeonjun was panting from the kiss and his forehead was resting against his best friend’s. Then, he realized that he was blindfolded.

He quickly took off the bandana and the sight of Soobin’s flushed cheeks made him fall even harder that he already was.

“You found me.” Soobin panted out with an endearing smile, eyes crinkling in what seemed to be pure and simple happiness.

“I did,” Yeonjun answered just as softly. “I didn’t exoect you to kiss me, though.” He smiled against soobin’s lips that stretched into an even bigger grin, “I’m really happy you did it, though.” He nuzzled Soobin’s nose fondly before kissing it, too.

It took a solid minute before he remembered where he was. He looked around and they probably had thirty phone cameras filming them, people cheering them happily.

“Yeonjun! You bastard! You finally did it!” Changbin screamed.

“About damn time,” Ryujin said smugly although Yeonjun could see the pride glinting in her eyes.

“We did it Kai! We’re quite literally cupids!” Beomgyu barked at his co-host as they high-fived so hard that the slapping noise rang in the room.

“You did what? Wait...” he narrowed his eyes at the two devils blowing on their red hands, “This was your plan all along?” ande suddenly it made sense.

Beomgyu and Kai fidgeted under the scrutinizing looks. When Yeonjun was about to tear them down to pieces, Kai took Beomgyu’s mic and threw it at the other end of the room before screaming “DIVERSION!” then the two hosts scrambled away from Yeonjun’s vicious grip from hell.

“I can’t believe they would do this,” he muttered to Soobin who didn’t seem to be able to stop smiling. He took Yeonjun’s face and kissed his small pout away and _Wow, Soobin’s kisses really were something else._

“You said that out loud, too” Chaeryeong teased him and this time Yeonjun wasn’t even sorry. He looked around the room and he was met with people smiling.

Yeonjun saw all those faces that only radiated support and relief for him and Yeonjun didn’t understand how he ever thought that taking distance from them would be a solution to his stress and busy life.

He all threw them grateful smiles before turning back to Soobin who looked as elated as he felt.

No, he really couldn’t stay away a second longer.

That was his last thought before he started kissing his best friend again, ignoring the people around him, because _fuck it_.

He could allow himself to kiss the love of his life for a little while, right?

* *

*

Once their friends forcefully entangled them, Soobin and Yeonjun went to congratulate the winning couple.

The both had hideous golden scarfs around their shoulder that read ‘ _Beomgyu’s Luv Winners! TM_ . They had radiating smiles, too.

“Congratulation, Yeonjun!” Wooyoung took Yeonjun in his arm for a quick but warm hug, San following suite just as soon. “You finally got your head out of your ass!”

“Technically, he didn’t. Soobin made the last move, “San pointed out playfully. “Nice move by the way. Very effective.” He nudged the younger and he only smiled back sheepishly, cheeks red.

Yeonjun looked at him fondly, because now he could do it openly and his best friend (boyfriend?) was the cutest but most beautiful work of art.

“Oh gosh,” Wooyoung suddenly spat in faux disgust, “Now that they’re together Yeonjun won’t even hide how whipped he is.” God have mercy on our souls.” And coming from Woosan, Yeonjun cold only laugh.

He was too happy to be offended.

***

They spent the rest of the night – the real part now starting – in similar fashion. People congratulating them and expressing well wishes but also for them to tone down the ‘whipness’.

“Hyung, how obvious were you for all those people talking about it like it’s been so long?” Soobin asked him when they were alone in Beomgyu’s room. Yeonjun tried to hide his face but he couldn’t because Soobin was holding it softly. The younger hadn’t let go of him since the end of the show, and Yeonjun loved it.

“I was very obvious apparently. I mean we’ve always been close, you and I. but since realized I liked you, in high school, it was hard not to show how I felt.” He explained shyly, face getting hotter from the emotional glint in Soobin’s eyes.

“If it helps, I started realizing that I had feelings for you in middle school when you helped me on my feet, when I almost passed out from how bad I felt from eating Moa’s cat litter.” Beomgyu grinned and Yeonjun’s eyes widened at the confession.

“It’s been that long?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, so I didn’t say anything. I was happy with how our relationship was, too. We took care of each other and I liked it like that.” Soobin muttered softly, to what Yeonjun beamed back and kissed his nose, cheek then lips softly.

“I’m so glad we got our shit together,” he sighed against his boyfriend’s lips. They hadn’t really talked about it but he was sure that Soobin considered them boyfriends as well. It almost feels surreal. I can’t believe that what brought us together was Beomgyu and Kai’s stupid game-show.” He snorted ungracefully but Soobin didn’t make a comment because he was used to Yeonjun just being himself in front of him.

Yeonjun loved him for it.

(Too soon? Maybe. They’ll figure it out together.)

“Honestly, when he told me to participate with I had no idea that he was planning this. It’s so extra. So eccentric.”

“So, him.” Yeonjun concluded in a low chuckle and Soobin nodded, joining him.

“I’m grateful for him, since it worked out... Although I’ll never say it out loud.” Yeonjun huffed gently and Soobin suddenly pulled him softly, switching their seating position to him straddling Soobin’s lap. He raised his eyebrow at the bold movement.

“Honestly, hyung, I’ve been waiting to be with you for close to ten years and now I want to make up for all the lost time.” Soobin admitted lowly as he rested his large hands on Yeonjun’s hip, running his thumb under Yeonjun’s shirt. He felt shivers running down his spine as his heart pounded at the confession.

He nodded dumbly for ten seconds, at Soobin’s great amusement, “Yes. Yes. Let’s—let’s do this. I’m fine with that.” He probably looked like a chicken, but he was just really giddy inside and out.

He finally had Soobin the way he wanted.

He leaned in Soobin’s space to kiss his neck softly. He trailed down kisses, a electric feeling striking him as he heard Soobin’s breath hitching. When he reached under his jaw, Soobin’s hand left his hips to take his face and the younger leaned to kiss him properly.

The feeling of floating came back immediately as he held him tighter, to feel him completely, in a way he had never allowed to before.

He was about to run his hands under the fabric of Soobin’s shirt when he heard the dorm’s door slam open.

“I TOLD YALL THAT THEY WERE MAKING OUT! PAY UP BITCHES!” Kai screeched, startling the couple out of their position. They looed towards the door and Kai, Changbin, Beomgyu, Ryujin and Wooyoung and stern looking Taehyun and Chaeryeong were there, hollering.

“Oh, _shit_! You guys couldn’t have waited to go home, huh? Talk about horny fuck…” Changbin grumbled as he pulled his wallet. He pulled out few thousands of won and gave them to Kai, Wooyoung and Ryujin who all grinned smugly.

“I bet that they were going to have sex, though,” Beomgyu interjected as he held Taehyun who chastised him, “Did they? Did you?” Beomgyu’s eyes were wide open and Oh. They were all drunk.

Yeonjun was about to get up but Soobin held him place firmly and when Yeonjun gave him a look, Soobin avoided his gaze, glaring on the people that had interrupted them.

“We didn’t.” the younger hissed, “Now can you please get out!” he barked but it had as much effect as a puppy yapping for a walk.

The gang laughed and cooed, “Aw, Soobin is finally getting his long-awaited sugar from his _boyfriend_.” Beomgyu laughed teasingly.

“More like dough. AH! That was bread joke.”

“Wow, that was _lame_. Even for you, Kai.”

“You wouldn’t able to do better, Ryujin noona.”

“Guys, we should leave them—”

“We lived through years of pinning and sexual tension. Their horny asses can wait a damn minute—”

“GET OUT!” Yeonjun threw Beomgyu’s school bag at them and they all scrambled out, laughing like hyenas before it reached them.

God, they exhausted him.

(He wouldn’t have them any other way, though.)

“I can’t with them,” Soobin sighed looking as tired as Yeonjun was emotionally. “Why are we friends with them, again?”

“I know that it was because I thought that I them? I’m not sure now, though.” Yeonjun joked. Soobin huffed out a laugh in response and then silence invaded the room. It was comfortable, just like it always was when they were together.

Yeonjun leaned again, this time taking his time to embrace Soobin’s lips in the most tender kiss, his heart fluttering at the way that Soobin instinctively held him closer. They stayed like this, exploring each other softly, until Soobin hummed and pulled away.

“Okay this going to sound corny, but I’m still going to ask.” Soobin smiled shyly and Yeonjun’s breath hitched a little.

“Yes?” he asked softly.

Soobin breathed in and out before letting a too serious and emotional, “Will you be my Luv, hyung?”

Yeonjun blinked as he processed the words.

Then gasped dramatically, “ _Oh my god_! Yes! I will!” he fake-cried as he hugged Soobin so tightly that the younger screeched in his ears a squeaky, eye crinkling laugh.

To the sound of his boyfriend’s melodious laughs, Yeonjun felt like he would never be happier than when he would be by Soobin’s side. Nothing could break them apart, not being in different colleges, not studying, not anyone.

Nothing would because Yeonjun wouldn’t allow anything to break them.

As he nuzzled Soobin’s nose fondly and poked his dimples just _because he could_ , cooing that he was his official ‘Luv’, Yeonjun knew that no matter what, they would be alright.

Because, as Yeonjun had let out despite himself before, they were each other’s homes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a lil comment, kudos, and some 'luv' before Beomgyu trademarks that word lmao
> 
> see ya <3
> 
> Twt: [@sanspoppinstar](https://twitter.com/sanspoppinstar) 💕


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